A jet fire at a major oil terminal in the port city of Feodosia in Russian-annexed Crimea has been put out five days after Ukrainian missile strikes there, its Russian-installed Mayor Igor Tkachenko said Friday.
“As of 8 a.m. there’s no jet fire on the territory of the oil terminal,” Tkachenko wrote on Telegram, saying “the situation has stabilized and is fully under control.”
“Emergency services and our municipal enterprises are continuing emergency recovery work. It will continue until complete liquidation,” Tkachenko added.
His assurances come hours after Crimea’s Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov reported a “release of combustible materials” overnight after residents said they heard an explosion.
Tkachenko assured nearby residents that air quality posed no threat despite locals’ complaints of nausea and headaches and the local consumer protection watchdog reporting high levels of sulfur dioxide near the flames.
Ukraine’s military said Monday its missile forces had carried out a successful strike on the Feodosia offshore oil terminal, the largest on the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea. More than 1,100 people were evacuated as the flames spread to more than 2,500 square meters.
Media reports linked the oil terminal to President Vladimir Putin’s university friend Viktor Khmarin, who was said to be the beneficiary of a company that bought it in 2019 after its nationalization by Russia’s occupational authorities.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
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